I dig that one song from The WalkmenYOU GOT SOME NERVE TO BE ASKING A FAVOR. I think those are the lyrics. Whatever, they are critically acclaimed, Letterman said so. So enough of my rambling, here are The Walkmen performing Heartbreaker on David Letterman’s Late Night TV Show (spoiler alert – it’s not as cool as the song I butchered above).

After two successful tours of the United States earlier this year, The Darkness are set to return for two nights this fall. With the band en route to South America, the hard rockers will play in the major media markets known as New York and Los Angeles. As you can see in the above poster, tickets go on sale later this week.

To check out our extensive coast to coast coverage of The Darkness from earlier this year, click here.

I can honestly say that I’ve been waiting to see the Toadies again since Sept 2010, the 1st and only time I saw them live. So when news broke right here at Concert Confessions that they were to co-Headline tour with Helmet I was more than stoked. Helmet too? It’s impossible for one not to be pumped for something like this, and a promise that can hopefully be fulfilled in these next few paragraphs-we’ll try and find out how exactly the opening band Ume is actually pronounced. The songs I looked up on YouTube were pretty cool, so we got three solid bands lined up here tonight at Webster Hall for the 75th Edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series. Let’s hope there are no former members of the Cro-Mags here, I don’t want to get stabbed or anything. Doors are set to open at 6PM and Ume suppose to go on at 6:45.. I think it’s Ladies Night here at Webster Hall so I wouldn’t be surprised if they push us scum rockers out by 11 or so. Anyway, let’s roll.

Got a 32oz soda at the ferry because Mayor Bloomberg can kiss my ass. It wasn’t until I got in the line outside Webster Hall, 20 minutes til doors open that my bladder decided it was annoyed by the mass intake of beverage and let me tell you folks, that was the longest 20 minutes of my life. The only Starbucks near by had an “out of order” sign on the bathroom. As I stand around they open a door and I sneak a peak at the set times for tonight: Ume: 6:45, Helmet: 7:45, Toadies: 9:15. They let us in about 6:15, I find my way upstairs so I can lean on the rail and take some sweet pictures. Notice not a lot of people up here

Ume

The Austin trio scampered on stage at 6:45 and started things off with “The Conductor”. Boy were they loud. The ferocious guitar playing of Lauren Larsen led the way, powering through each song without a break in the heavy. The room isn’t even half full, but the people here are rocking out to no extent, this writer included.

All their songs have this ‘smash you in the face’ type aggression, like an angry Dinosaur Jr-the distortion was all I’ve ever asked for in a band, the drumming was sexy as hell. After “Chase It Down” had me sold mid-set, I started to wonder why someone didn’t take the time out of their day to make this band a Wikipedia page, I got their names(first names anyway) from their Facebook page, Rachael on drums, Eric on bass. All killed it… They’re from Austin so they’d be a perfect band to open up for the Meat Puppets on a tour(wearing my Pups tee, of course).

Being an earlier show (with Helmet due on 745 and Toadies at 915), they unfortunately were only able to get into seven songs..but with they time they had they were able to deliver everything the early arrivals could have asked for. They went off a little after 7PM leaving me wanting more.

Helmet

The buzz outside while taking in a cigarette was “can’t believe the Toadies are closing this show”. I’m just happy to have two cool bands co-headlining a tour, not gonna nit-pick the order here. Then I got a text from a buddy that said “I’m shocked they played before the Toadies”. I headed back in and at 7:45ish Helmet began what was to be a little over an hour of punching me in the temples with riffs. I hadn’t been deafened like that in a while, come on now the last show this guy attended was Summerland. Helmet has some great banter, they were joking on superfans who ask them to “play b-sides from like 1990”, also mentioned that this show was earlier due to some sort of “disco” happening afterwards. The aforementioned club night. As I’m laughing at this dudes funny commentary, I get a text from Pam, she’s outside. Sweet. Pam is the one who got me to see the Toadies in the first place in a Cake for Toadies ticket trade off and it was so worth it. So now we’re headed back upstairs (Helmet isn’t deafening me any less by me being in a hallway), and one of the security guards is giving Pam a hard time so I’m just turn to dude and say “She’s with me, it’s cool”, and it worked. With the likes of Maura Johnston from the Village Voice in attendance, confidence can go along way with “Wilma’s Rainbow” as a stellar background soundtrack.

We grab drinks, 10 bucks for a Jack and Diet in a dixie cup. As we’re paying for the drinks, Helmet is not letting up and Pam (who’s in the building for about 10 minutes) turns to me and says “This band is pretty rocking” or something to that extent. Hell she knows less about the band then I do, I know “Unsung”. Man do I love that song, it’s such an important song in the canon of 90’s Rock & Roll tunes.

Well, rolling near 9 o’clock the last song they played was “In the Meantime”, leaving us Unsungless. No one seemed to care but me, as between sets I ran out for a smoke and saw a bunch of Helmet tee shirted folk talking, then turn towards the door and see people just arriving with printed out tickets-I guess only here to see the Toadies.

Toadies

Two totally different atmospheres in the room as I returned to my spot. The Helmet tee shirts sort of drifted towards the back of the room, and the few fellows wearing plaid shirts made their way up front. Toadies came out promptly at 9:15 and kicked things off with some “Heel” action, followed by “Backslider” and “I Come From The Water”

and that place was jumping. The last time I saw this band, I said something to the effect of “where have the Toadies been?”. Well, those questions were answered in an interview with Clark Vogeler over at AQ, and then this past Tuesday they released a new record called “Play.Rock.Music.”

I admit I have yet to grab the new album but I know they played “Summer of the Strange” off the new release, and that song is a keeper. They say the NSFW music video is pretty cool. The room was really settling in now, not many people seemed to have left after Helmet by the way everyone was fist pumping during songs like “Sweetness” and “Waterfall”. That man Clark Vogeler over there is tearing up this place-bouncing feedback off his amp Scott Lucas style really gets my juices flowing, I love that stuff. At like 10 o clock, I turn to Pam and tell her I’m gonna head to the other side to catch some pictures from different angles. “Song I Hate” was just ending, so what do you know I’m over here experimenting angles with my camera when I hear that “Possum Kingdom” riff. Okay, let’s roll film.

That version of Possum Kingdom I got at Gramercy in 2010 on video with heads bouncing in front of me needed to be trumped. And if you check below above, it has been in terms of quality.

After that they jumped into “Mister Love” and after that it’s 10:23 so Lewis says that since they’re pressed for time sort of, they’re not gonna do the run off stage for a minute thing and come back for an encore, instead just saying they had two more to play. “Rattlers Revival” kicked off the “encore” in fine fashion. Then, all of a sudden there’s four drums on stage and one of the dudes from Helmet along with the drummer from Ume are on stage to help out on this one. I turned and said “What is this Applied Science or something?”, of course making a 311 reference. Then, Lewis, messing with my fragile emotions teases the first few chords of “Unsung” and looks up into this window upstairs on the side of the stage where the lead singer of Helmet is at the window, flipping the bird to everyone on stage. So after all the jokes “I Burn” was the last song played and they headed off stage at 10:32. Not a soul left unsatisfied.

That was fun times. It’s rare to get two great bands together, let alone three with tonight’s enlightenment to Ume, which is pronounced “ooo-may” by the way. Hope they come around again. Hope all these bands come around again. And props to Webster Hall for having that Air Conditioning blasting at an obnoxious volume. Keeping a chubby kid like me from sweating, you made everyone I sat near very happy people. Anyway, I’m out of here for now. Thanks to to ones who made it this far down.

On tonight’s edition of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert announced to the world the return of his long running, one year old, week long celebration of music, the Colbchella concert series. For last years StePhest Colbchella ‘011: Rock You Like a Thirst-IcanePresented by Dr. Pepper, we were given performances by Bon Iver, Florence and the Machine and Talib Kweli with Yasiin Bey (A.K.A. Mos Def) in addition to an in depth interview with Jack White and other surprises such as Colbert debuting the follow-up to his ‘smash hit’ “Charlene (I’m Right Behind You)”, titled “Charlene II (I’m Over You)” featuring Third Man Records artist The Black Belles as his backing band.

Filming will take place Friday August 10th at 7pm aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York and will be shown the week of August 13 on Comedy Central. You can get all the details and info on how to obtain your free tickets at www.colbertnation.com

Nas stopped by the Late Show With David Letterman television program last night (07/16/12) for a performance of his song Daughters. The song is from the album Life Is Good which is in stores today. You can check out the performance down below.

Last night on late night TV it was Senior Talent Show Night. We already shared with you The Beach Boys performing on Leno (and if you look at the user comments we are apparently assholes for speaking the truth). Now we keep the geriatric beach jams alive and kicking with Jimmy Cliff live on Letterman. The living reggae legend hands down wins the contest with a smoking take on One More. Check it out down below.

Easily entertained is how I would describe the majority of fans of music I run into.

That being said, last night Tenacious D stopped by the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City to play a boring song to a crowd that loved it. Maybe it’s because I don’t find Jack Black funny in most of his flicks that I don’t get this band. But I don’t care if they brought John Bonham and Jimi Hendrix back from the dead to play in the band, this stuff would still annoy the crap out of me. But hey, what do I know? I’m just a cynical asshole who doesn’t get current music. Or maybe I’m right. Either way, here’s the video:

Click here to check out a brutally honest review of the new Tenacious D record from our founder and long time D fan Reverend Justito.

It’s shit like this that keeps me out of Silver Lake as much as possible. I mean what the fuck is going on here? I assume the drummer failed with 3-4 bands with names like To Write Love On The Sickest Kids or Pierce The Maya. Is that the oldest Hanson brother on guitar? Oh and hey check out the front man, who I can only assume is Edward Sharpe, but no his name is Alex Ebert. Fact is the best thing about this train wreck of a performance is the fact Edward Alex Ebert Sharpe ran closer to the crowd (who judging by the expressions on their face have that same WHAT THE FUCK feeling that I have) and got a bunch of camera men on TV. I am not sure how things work back east, but I know out west more often then not if you are a union camera man and you end up on TV when you are not supposed to you get fat cash. Anyways enough of my rambling here is Alex Ebert and the Magnetic Zeros “performing” Man On Fire for Mr. David Letterman.

It is time for your daily Jack White update. The man has had a busy week with not one but two appearances on Later…With Jools Holland, a stop by The Colbert Report and of course dropping an amazing new album entitled Blunderbuss. Now you can watch Meg White’s Ex-Husband/Brother’s entire performance from last night’s Unstaged performance at Webster Hall in New York City below.

Setlist:
(With female band)
Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground
Missing Pieces
Freedom At 21
Love Interruption
Hotel Yorba
Two Against One
Top Yourself
I’m Slowly Turning Into You
Blue Blood Blues
Take Me With You When You Go
[intermission]
(with male band)
Sixteen Saltines
Cut Like a Buffalo
Weep Themselves To Sleep
Trash Tongue Talker
You Know That I Know
Were Going To Be Friends
Hypocritical Kiss
Hello Operator
Carolina Drama
Seven Nation Army
Goodnight, Irene

Back in January our pal Jay Porks decided to post The War on Drugs appearance on the Jimmy Fallon program because they have an awesome name. We really dug the jam (which NBC has since removed). Thankfully, the band (who we also gave away tickets to see in Hollywood) has once again showed up on a late night television talk show. This time they paid David Letterman a visit and you can watch their performance of Come to The City* down below.

*You can watch till someone kicks it off YouTube for copyright violation.

Trampled By Turtles have a cool band name. I have never heard their music. As I type this, Letterman is reading the intro and letting us know where they are from. Hmmmm yeah as this starts I suppose I was looking for something a lil heavier based off the name but that is what you get when you judge a book by its cover. Oh wait, now it’s getting heavier. Well as heavy as you can get with banjos. I actually really like this. Why don’t you join me and check it out down below for yourself.

We admit, with only Reverend Justito hitting Coachella from our tribe this weekend we will be missing the Kaiser Chiefs. Can you blame him, they are playing at the same time at The Buzzcocks and he has yet discovered how to be in multiple places at the same time. So to apologize for our lack of Kaiser Chiefs Coachella coverage, we will share with you their performance on Late Night with David Letterman from the night of April 11th 2012. Well, we will share it till CBS has it kicked off YouTube for copyright violation. Oh and is Dave drunk here? Sure sounds like it. I will shut up now, enjoy Kaiser Chiefs rocking “On The Run.”

New York City brace yourselves, we finally got ourselves a good festival. It’s called Catalpa , and taking place July 28th and 29th at Randall’s Island Park in NYC.

Who are the headliners you ask?

The Black Keys, TV On The Radio, and Snoop Dogg (Performing 1993’s Doggystyle in it’s entirety). With a full announcement of artists to come soon, I’m pretty sure this is one all of us in the New York City area need to check out.

Weekend Early Bird Passes start at $99. The festivals official website says there should be 50+ acts eventually making there way into this line-up, but as of now the only acts confirmed (and we’ll keep you updated as they break) are listed below:

Jack White is one of the undisputed champions of rock and roll. He’s jammed with Jimmy Page and The Edge, recorded with Danger Mouse, and led one of the most unlikely groups to massive mainstream success. With last year’s break up of The White Stripes, and the upcoming release of his solo debut Blunderbuss, White performed two new songs on Saturday Night Live. So below here’s “Love Interruption” and “Sixteen Saltines” that you can watch it below.

In a few minutes my television is going to show “Neil Young” and Bruce Springsteen cover LMFAO’s Sexy and I Know It on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Yet thanks to Al Gore’s wonderful invention we are able to share it with you right now. It’s pretty damn amazing.

As Bruce Week wraps on the late night talk show, Springsteen and the E Street Band performed three songs with the help of special guests Tom Morello and The Roots. Head over to our pals at The Audio Perv to check out all the performances.

We often tune into late night television to discover new (errrrr new to us) groups. Our latest discovery is the Brooklyn based rock and roll group known as White Rabbits. Pretty much everything you would expect from a band from Brooklyn – bad haircuts, vintage guitars and plaid shirt. Oh and those lil mini keyboards that are all the rage these days. Well regardless of the look, the group performed “Temporary” which is the lead single from their upcoming studio effort Milk Famous. To be totally honest it’s not that bad. In fact our own Reverend Justito enjoyed it enough to share it with you. Check out the video (and a list of upcoming tour dates for the group) down below.

There’s a venue in New York City located at 204 Varick Street called S.O.B.’s that will probably not show up in any more Jay Porks Experiences… We’re here for DMX’s Return To New York City Presented by Ghetto Metal ( Twitter: @ghettometal) tonight. The SOLD OUT S.O.B.’s I should say, as the tickets for this 400 person capacity venue are gone. I remember in High School circa 2000 when I was introduced to DMX in a music class-not by the teacher but by an obnoxious kid sitting back rock with headphones on reciting the lyrics live from I.S. 75. I mean, if you’re going to be screaming lyrics out in class, I think those were the most explicit one’s you could have picked at the time.. The delinquent was booted from class, and I found myself adding another artist to that “Handful of Hip Hop Artists I would go See live” list. So the 65th installment of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series brings back memories of Slaughterhouse last year , at SOB’s, (which at the time I considered) an awesome venue. Just a big room: Bar in the back, a stage that’s literally three steps up from the ground, dinner seating to the left of the stage, and the back stage area being downstairs-which leads the artists to no choice but to come through the crowd to enter. Awesome. I mean, the only way this night can go bad, is if there’s like 40 unnamed openers that perform til midnight. Whatever “Ghetto Metal” means, I’m pretty sure that whatever happens tonight, my buddy Chach (@oneshotchach) gets the blame for dragging me to this one. Doors at 7:30, show is at 9PM.

We get in, go up against the stage next to the the stairs leading up to it. Cool. Good spot. TONS of press here, I mean everywhere I looked someone’s got one of those thousand dollar cameras. I mean the whole shebang-the flash extension thing-a-ma-bobs attached to Nikon’s and Canon’s surrounding this room. For a place with no special press area, I was puzzled. Then Chach informed me of DMX’s interview on Power 105.1 earlier this morning (video above) which I just watched and now totally understand the hype now.

So here’s something unexpected: instruments on stage. Drums and amps set up for, like, a band. Maybe this is the “Ghetto Metal” they’re talking about. And another shocker, show is said to start at 9PM, and a band hit the stage at 8:04. Cool, let’s get this started early, is this ‘Bazaar Royal’? They’re the only opener listed. No it isn’t at all. It’s a band called “Murder League All Stars”. Make fun of the name all you want, but 30 seconds into their first song they were already better then Limp Bizkit-True Story. They had a bassist, guitarist and drummer rocking out while a two man lyrical attack that had the funky rhymes a la Beastie Boys combined with a splash of band like the Deftones. Both guys were rapping, but they were also screaming at heavy volume at times too. Me, Chach, and the photographer chick representing The Source magazine were really digging them…

The next band up, still pre-9pm, was, and forgive me for the botching of the name I was really being pushed out of my spot during this time towards like, behind the DJ rig where I was going to have zero video chances. I think it was “A the Future Featuring A.D.D.”. Back up singers on stage, another guitar player and drummer, along with a violinist, and a female up front singer who’s hot. Then the lead singer/rapper dude comes out in a ‘Misfits’ jacket. They were groovy too, but what the hell is happening here? I’m in the right place right-this is the DMX show? At Hip Hop shows I always feel like I’m out of my field of connoisseurship, but this felt like the norm to me. They played a few quick ones because noted that they were off at 9..

Right during this break they’re setting up another bands gear on stage and we’re wondering if this is like, maybe the back up band for DMX or something, because obviously Bazaar Royal must not be playing, we’ve already seen two bands. It’s at this point I’m beyond the point were I can see the stage, as people who have no concert manners like to shove themselves to the front with little regard to the people who stood outside over an hour and have been standing in this spot for an hour and a half already after coming here straight from a 11-4 waiter shift… People almost got punched tonight, but this when I told Chach I’m gonna stray towards the back for DMX scout a better spot while he snaps shots on his iPhone.

So we wait, and we wait and then at 10 o’clock Bazaar Royal comes on. And if this dude doesn’t even deserve my words but I’ll have them none the less. First let me say that everybody in the band backing Bazaar Royal was tight as freaking hell. They did some cool stuff, a six stringed bassist. Open letter to those musicians: Get away from that guy. Every time you started to nod your head with the band this dude’s obscure voice ruined every song. Not Eddie Vedder ruined, but I really don’t get what he’s trying to do, and I don’t think he does either. Before the last song, chants of D-M-X started, and his repsonse was “Hey! Show some fucking respect! Because I’ll keep you waiting. If you don’t like my music you can find me downstairs or outside..” That’s not exact but it’s the jist. Is he implying that I should fight him if I don’t like his music? First of all, you have no talent. Second off, you have ZERO taste in music and I can tell. The DMX chants started right after him and his band did a cover of Kings of Leon “Use Somebody”. And I’m not talking “hip hop sampled and made a new song out of it” cover-the band played it straight. I should’ve gotten that on video, it would’ve been viral for sure- but I was too busy screaming at the top of my lungs: “Holy F#&king God ARE YOU SERIOUSLY PLAYING KINGS OF LEON RIGHT NOW!?!” repeated to everyone surrounding me. People I know(not by choice), who don’t like Hip Hop even for a second have told me that the perception is that their fans have bad taste in music. Well, when these fans heard Kings Of Leon being covered, the whole building knew it was about time for this dude to bounce. So Bazaar Royale, or Royal or whatever the hell it is . Don’t you EVER disrespect people at a concert for wanting to the headliner. You mentioned how you been with DMX since day one and all that stuff-yet I’ve never heard your name in life dude-and I listen to a lot of music. You have the nerve to step on a soap box (metaphorically) and annoy the hell out of the 400+ people the squeezed into this place. This schmuck didn’t go off til 10:50.

That’s when I high tailed it outside to smoke a cig, and I noticed that if the fire Marshall showed up he’s shut this place down. I can’t even get out the door. Finally did and a dude leaning against the door asked me if I needed any Heroin. What the hell goes on with life?? I got away from him quick and got back in to eventually find a spot on the same side of the room but in the back, I’m probably 20-30 heads back from Chach at this point, and any videos I want to take are blocked by tall people. My arm hurts.

For the last two paragraphs of stuff that annoyed me, this night was a serious win. I mean I was having a great time for those first two bands, and at 11:38 the night go that much better, when there he arose from the basement: DMX!

Kicked things off with “One More Road To Cross”.Now this is fun. The whole vibe of this place is shifted. We’re all here looking at the stage and seeing DMX perform for the first time in New York in years. A lot of us first timers, he did nothing short of give SOB’s everything he had. Pulled Swiss Beatz up for a few tracks including “Ruff Ryders anthem” and “Get it on the Floor”. Rumors had it that the Lox and Drag-On were downstairs set to appear, but that didn’t matter. We’re getting the DMX greatest hits set here. As much as my arm hurt from stretching it up for my camera, and as annoyed as I would normally be when people sway their hands in my way-when “Party Up” came on I was glad Chach dragged me to this. “Lord Gimmie A Sign” and “What They Really Want” were crowd pleasers.

Let’s not underestimate the humor of DMX. I mean, he was smiling, cracking jokes, passing around a bottle of Hennesy to the crowd and telling everyone to “Sip and pass”. Also the way he talks, with the growl serving as periods on sentences Awesome. Another phrase that was scream out by DMX throughout the evening “Flesh of my FLESHHHHH” (before he would do a song off of the “Flesh of my Flesh, Blood of my Blood” record). And “It is NOTTT a F#%king GAME!!”. While the set was reaching it’s end I heard people behind me talking. They were chatting between songs and the beat came on for the next one and the dude says to his friend “Wow DMX has SO MANY great songs!”. To quote Ed McMahon “You are correct sir”. The night ended in the darkness when X instructed the house lights be turned off and everyone hold up ligthers and cell phones, and that’s when he ended the evening with “Slippin’” I clocked it at a 12:56AM ending.

Can’t ask for anymore then that. See, when I went to see Joe Budden at Irving Plaza he rapped like one verse a song and they’d switch the beat up and stuff like we’re listening to the radio or something. DMX came to SOB’s and left it all on stage. He was certainly not just going through the motions. It was a great show.

I’ll hopefully have some more video uploaded before the day’s end, I got some queued up.. thanks for tuning in.

After their live stream from NYC’s Terminal 5 the other night, while in town I guess it made sense for Brooklyn’s own Sleigh Bells to make a stop at 30 Rockefeller Center to perform on Saturday Night Live.

Turned on NBC just in time to catch “Comeback Kid” first, then later on in the evening play “End of the Line”.

Sorry we don’t have a play by play synopsis of skits we thought were funny, this writer hasn’t found SNL to be amusing in a number of years.

We here at Concert Confessions love Primus so damn much that we no longer scream that they suck per the request of Les Claypool. It is always a treat when the boys from the East Bay appear on National Television. As you may recall we shared with you a past performance from Jimmy Kimmel Live, but today the east coast gets some Primus television love. The band stopped into the NBC Studios last night to rock out with Jimmy Fallon. The trio performed their latest single “Lee Van Cleef” which aired on the Peacock. They also performed their classic “Jerry Was A Racecar Driver” as a web exclusive. We have both performances for you below.

There are two types of people in this world: the people who love South African rave-rap trio Die Antwoord, and those who hate them. There is no in between, except the grey area featuring those who’ve never heard Die Antwoord.

The latest ridiculously bizarre Internet sensations to make their way into the part of a person’s brain that asks questions have also made their way onto primetime television.

They played their newest single “I Fink U Freeky” from their brand new album “Ten$ion” on Letterman’s Late Night stage, and things most certainly got “freeky,” especially for Letterman himself. Watch below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoHbI-955uQ

Die Antwoord have been dividing fans and non-fans for a few years now, so if I were you I’d choose your side now. When the Die Antwoord fan vs. non-fan war actually happens, you don’t want to be one of the poor few without an army.

On the same evening that New York Jets Running Back Curtis Martin get’s elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, can you believe that’s only the second best thing that happened today? Well, The 64th installment of the Jay Pork Never Ending Concert Series may have had something to do with that. Tonight brings us to Irving Plaza in NYC for an epic evening with The Darkness! Along with Foxy Shazam (Which ‘thenaturalstoner‘ praises for their latest stellar release), and I believe some other band they threw on the card that will be named in the next paragraph or so. This is great for so many reasons. First trip back to Irving Plaza since the Joe Budden debacle, and as I recall I noted to show up earlier this time and make it a must to get a better spot. Irving Plaza is also the venue me and my friend Pam scalped the fake Alice In Chains tickets and got beat on 100 bucks. Bad things have happened here. But, it’s the freaking Darkness! A band that people don’t know til you sing them the chorus from “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”, and even then they snort in derision. “You’re going to see that band?”. Yea actually I am. I can recall actually having a professor of mine at the College of Staten Island last semester breakdown the Epicness of the Darkness to some classmate who claimed they were a “one hit wonder”. That teacher said he’ll be in attendance tonight, and I will be looking for him(Brian Cogan author of many books available on Amazon, including the “Encyclopedia of Punk”). So there’s that and hey, it’s our first 2012 show-time to get back in the swing of things. I kicked it off huge last year with GWAR, and I expect The Darkness deliver as well (Well, except the “one of the guys in the band dying” part anyway). So let’s get this show on the road shall we?

So after freezing outside on a line for about an hour, they decided to open the doors. I happened to be standing next to a couple outside who I got to chatting it up with. Totally cool people, it was all laughs and talking past show experiences. Love that shit. And it was either Connecticut or New Hampshire they were from I can’t remember because I’m a terrible friend. But I know they were in a hotel and I know they were nice enough to warm me up with some of their Jagermeister while we waited for doors to open. Awesome. Finally some people who are friendly! I’m standing next to someone who says there is a second opener in addition to Foxy Shazam. I’m sure as hell hope not. Anyway I was able to snag a standing room spot upstairs, so video is happening tonight (we hope).

At 9 on the dot, a band fronted by a guy wearing rainbow zebra pants hit the stage. This band turned out to be Crown Jewel Defense- they’ve been on tour with Darkness overseas they say, and by the looks of their wardrobe I believe them. These guys look like before they formed this band they played as a Darkness cover band the way everyone’s pants hugging testicles. I mean, these guys aren’t that bad- they’re tight as a band. This guy has painted lines under his eyes like a Native American chief or something. What the hell goes on with life? A whole 24 minutes of their set went by fairly quickly, before the last song there was chants of “No more songs!” from the Irving Plaza crowd. Wasn’t me this time I swear.

Foxy Shazam came out at 9:40, and were totally freaking cool from the get go. Lead singer grabs the microphone and says: “I know Rock and Roll is dead but that doesn’t mean we can’t dance with it’s fucking ghost!!”. Hell yes! THIS is a band I can get into. They kicked it off with a song called “The Only Way to My Heart”-you had me at “The”! The lead singer jumps on the lead guitarist’s shoulders as he’s playing his little solo part, humps the back of his head. They got what I thought was hydraulic keyboards going on over there, but that was just the dude enjoying lifting it and moving it into obscure angles, including upside down to end the set. He was standing (and stomping) on that keyboard for a while there. Their lead singer is something else. All over the place, crazy swinging the mic-stand around and catching it.. Little bit of Iggy in him,

you know, minus the blood and peanut butter. During the set he asked if anyone in the crowd has a cigarette, he was tossed one with a light and lit it up. He takes a few puffs, and EATS IT. The dude ate a lit cigarette on stage! That’s what I call showmanship right there, that’s a front man I want to see more of… I feel like I’ve said this before, but this band sounds exactly like it’s name. Foxy Shazam.. just say it like this Foxy Sha-ZAM!!..Their set was over at 10:09. Then the wait for the Darkness had begun.

Hey, message to the dudes behind me-bump me again, and I’m going to turn around and punch somebody. The dance floor is downstairs if you wanna boogie, there was 5 of us that ran up here for a reason-to get away from you idiots.

So at like 10:50, the lights went off and a little intro music for a minute or so before they appeared before us: THE DARKNESS !

Rocking a stache like no other, decked out in an American Flag themed outfit looking like Johnny Depp meets Freddie Mercury. The place has filled out to the gills and going completely crazy.. these people are screaming so loud I could barely hear the notes at first. Started it with “Black Shuck” and went into “Growing on Me” from there. As someone who writes stuff on the interwebs, this point of the show I’m in heaven with a great spot and no event staffers in sight. I’m rolling, I’m gonna get this whole freaking thing! “The Best of Me”, “One Way Ticket to Hell and Back”, “Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us”(The music video they release a few days ago), and “Get Your Hands Off My Women”-with the only one I wasn’t recording was the new one.

–To me, this set happens in portions. The above paragraph is me rocking out doing my Social Media Journalistic duties from the 2nd floor leaning over the railing, recording songs like the rest of the room-except I’m not using an iPhone. So this schmuck starts tapping me on the shoulder during “Can’t Believe It’s Not Love” and demands I put the camera away. Really dude? Again, I can’t stress this enough, IF YOU DON’T WANT ME TO BRING A CAMERA, THEN PUT IT IN THE EVENT INFO! You can’t just make up rules. Besides the fact of all the pot smoke and cigarettes being smoked downstairs. But no, me standing next the mom of one Foxy Shazam’s photographers with a little tiny camera is a problem. Screw you guy, you almost ruined my night.

–

It was at that point I realized my kidney’s were not up to the task of holding this urine in much longer, and since this great spot has gone to waste thanks to that event staff prick, might as well hit the head right about now. And I promise you this is how it went down, I can’t make this up. I run downstairs as I hear that Justin Hawkins is strumming an acoustic, but now I’m on the run to the stall and as soon as I close that door and begin to relieve myself, I hear that the song they’re playing is “Holding My Own”.. as I look down and, let’s face it, I too am also holding my own. I ran back upstairs because I heard “Love Is Only a Feeling” about to get started and I got up there and couldn’t see a freaking thing it’s so packed out. I was so mad for that split second I swung my fist towards the wall and almost punched it, I pulled back before I hit it (damn people watching me must think I’m a nutcase). I walked downstairs and sat back to enjoy this great song, and this great night. Eff that guy-I got “Growing On Me” that’s gonna have 100’s of views by next week. Porks 1, Event Staff 0.

Some bands let you down with their live performance-that is not the case here tonight. I cannot believe this guy can hit those high notes like that in real life-too bad Queen isn’t still looking for a front man to tour with-because THIS would be the guy. And keep now I’ve moved to the bar, and I’m watching the on stage happenings on a flat screen TV. I’m being blown away through a Television! This back end of the set they actually mixed in a few new songs too, that Justin said is on an album they’re working on. Good news for us Darklings. “Friday Night”(I love that song) was followed by a new one called “Everybody Have a Good Time”. He said it was “Everybody Have a Mother Fucking Good Time”, but the chorus didn’t have the expletive in it, so I’ll assume it’s not going in the title. “Givin’ Up” was in there too at some point, my iPod was dead I couldn’t take the songs down in order..Their were at least 2 more new ones in there that we weren’t privileged to be given the names of before the night was over. They went off well after Midnight, with “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” being the last song before the encore, and it was already 12:10 by then.

What a night. Feels so good to get back in the swing of things for 2012-as much as I love discussing festival lineups and trying to plan trips to Beale St., it fells so freaking good typing every single word of this as the clock ticks past 5AM. Tons of other shows coming this year, as we try and top last years total of 23: We got DMX coming up, Kasabian at Terminal 5 in March, Local H coming back at the Mercury Lounge in April. Fun times, fun times indeed. But here’s something not fun: I have a restaurant to open up in 4 hours-working til 9PM. And you know what, maybe someone get’s Merlot instead of Cabernet later because I’m so shot from all this madness… but it was all so damn worth it. Thanks for sticking around for all this jibber jabbar-stay tuned.

In the day and age of embedded video, it is rare I ever tune into late night Television to catch a musical artist. However the moment I heard that Concert Confessions favorite Joseph Arthur would be a guest of David Letterman, I made sure to sit my ass down on the couch around 12:15 am PST to catch one of the brightest artists to emerge over the past 25 years.

Supporting his just released FREE double record Redemption City, Arthur hit the late night circuit to perform “Travel As Equals.” Armed with a backing band that included former Ryan Adams & Grace Potter bassist Catherine Popper, Russell Simmins and backup vocals from Martha Redbone, Queen Esther & Maya Azucena, and Mary Worm, Arthur blew the roof off the Ed Sullivan Theatre.

Arthur is scheduled to play four shows in Quebec in March. To download his new album, click here.

Tis the season for giving, and if you’re this writer, receiving. When given the opportunity to be bought into Phish tonight for their first of a 4 night New Years Eve at Madison Square Garden, how could I pass it up? Before anything goes further we must slurp the Revered Justito, who gifts me with this ticket to the show tonight (and note that his holiday gift is to be mailed shortly), gifts me with the chance to see Phish. I’ve heard a lot of Phish-surprisingly enough not much of their music. I know several ‘Phans’ who speak of the band is Christ-like proportions. To give you an idea, the night before the show and throughout the morning I was reading tweets hashtagged with stuff like #OccupyMSG, and #YEMSG. Some folks were camped out all night-and they HAVE tickets. So there’s that side of the fence. Then I also have ran into a few friends who behave like, for lack of a better term here, “Haters”, when the band is mentioned. These people would compare a Phish concert to nothing more than a traveling circus of hacky sack and drugs. I chose to walk into this one with a non-bias attitude. I didn’t study up on the Phish catalog days leading up to the show-I didn’t read blogs or set lists. I’m a fan of spontaneity, that’s what the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series is all about; so here I bring you the 63rd installment, from the (newly renovated) World’s Most Famous Arena-Madison Square Garden in the heart of New York City, for 1st night of the Phish 4 night New Years Eve 2011-2012 run.

I get off the train around 630ish, and literally all I see is a sea of people standing in front of the Garden all holding up their index finger screaming “one?!?-who’s got one for tonight?” . Usually I’m at the show with extra tickets and I can’t give them away. All sorts of signs suggesting trades-I seriously considered a sign that was a two for one offer with me giving up tonight’s ticket for 2 tomorrow night. But I’m already here, so I’m sticking with it.

So a little after 7 I made it up to section 404, row G, seat 9. Holy crap- they sold out the seats behind the stage too ? I’ve never seen that before done at any arena. Usually they cut that area off the to public. If every seat gets filled(which it should be because it’s sold out), we’ll have at least 20,000 people here tonight.

At 8:07 We kicked off the night with “Free”, “Glide”, “Possum”, “Cities” and “The Ballard of Curtis Loew”.. It didn’t even take more than the first half of “Free” for me to begin enjoying myself. What would drive people to hate this? I mean, I guess if you don’t like musicians jamming out to groovy tunes then I could see your dilemma. But then you look around and realize this place is packed to gils-not an ass in a seat throughout the place..

The lights are something I’ve never seen before-how do the lights colors change mid-beam? How do you make the lights look like smoke rings? Haven’t seen a light show like this this side of Roger Waters.. And at the beginning of certain songs glow sticks are tossed by hundreds from the 400 sections raining down on the people in the lower levels. An arena wide celebration was what this night was about. My section was getting me a contact high before the set even began(thanks for sharing by the way #Sarcasm), people walking past me behind me asking each other “is that real?” referring to the wall. And I still don’t understand how many glow sticks needed to be purchased for the raining to still be going on an hour into the set.

“Stash” and “Contact”(a song the Rev Justito hasn’t seen live in 24 Phish shows) followed by “Sample in a Jar”, “Kill Devil Falls” and “Bathtub Gin” finished out what was to be Set 1.

So is this an intermission at 9:33? I would assume so considering nobody has left. If I was on a lower level, I’d duck out for a second for a cigarette since there’s a Nazi event staff guy who threatened to throw me out if he caught smoking again. So that’s right folks, the only person in this building not indulging in illegal drugs is the one who gets his shoulder tapped. Do I have a sign on my back that says “hey event staff please bother me at every show I attend in life!”. What the hell man, there is smoke EVERYWHERE, I mean everywhere. There’s probably more pot in this arena then I’ve ever smoked in my life and yet, my cigarette is causing a disturbance to this asshole stuck in a menial service position.

“Birds of a Feather” kicked off set number two at 10:02… And everyone is back to standing up. I tried to tape a couple a songs throughout the evening, but theres like a ceiling a few feet up, so I can’t exactly hold my camera above the swaying bodies in front of me. After Birds of a Feather it was “Carini” time, which was followed by “Tweezer” for the foreseeable future-they are jammin’ on this one.. This had to have gone over ten minutes (like most of the evening’s songs)n”My Friend My Friend” was up next. Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing? Without knowing the name of one song coming into this The setlist is being tweeted song by song. Now if only I could get this many web savvy people into the Meat Puppets, then I’d be doing my job as a social media assistant.

Then, wait a second I know this song-a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Rock N’ Roll”! Hell freaking yes! This is my FAVORITE Velvet underground song-had I got my camera out quick enough I would’ve been rolling film. “NICU”, “Bouncing Around the Room”,”Harry Hood”, and “Bug” all checked in before it was encore time..

“Tube”, “Rocky Top” and “Tweezer Reprise” served as a healthy encore for a “Phuphilling” night of Phish. The night came to an official end at 11:35pm. That leaves us with set one clocking in at an hour and twenty six minutes, and set two was an hour and thirty three minutes. I’ve seen bands not even play that long for ONE set, Phish come through MSG fries hearts and minds. Walking down the steps on the way out, I couldn’t help but overhear two buddies talking about how this was an “old school type of show”. As a first timer, I can’t tell you if that’s accurate or not-the Phans will judge by the setlist.

If you made it this far down, then you’ve probably enjoyed my first Phish experience, and I’ve enjoyed having you. Now I bid my readers a goodnight, because as I post this I have less then 2 hours to nap and get to my day job. Life and times of social media rockstar journalism. Again, huge thanks to the Reverend for giving me the chance to attend. Feels good to be baptized in the Phamily… LATE.

Notes: I have a note to share about the show tonight. If there was one thing I could’ve done without, it would’ve been the intermission from 9:33-10:02. I’m not saying it took away from time that could’ve been spent playing songs-they do this every year I’m sure they can go as long as they want (especially with the Knicks are on a west coast swing)-I just don’t understand what was getting done in that half hour. It’s not like we can go grab some air here- it’s takes like 20 minutes to exit the building. Maybe if I was with Phriends I would’ve have something to do during that half hour. Oh well, there’ll always be next time.

The 62nd Edition of the Jay Porks Never Ending Concert Series is a special one indeed for a couple of reasons. One, we’re heading out to the Bowery Electric (Joey Ramone Pl & 3rd St) down in the East Village for a charity event benefiting the Toys for Tots Foundation( ) featuring the musical styling of Joseph Arthur (and opener James Maddock). Never a bad thing to gain some good karma. Second reason this is special, it’s because I’ve officially taken a semester off of school to pursue my dreams: doing this…fighting on the front lines of the social media takeover of traditional rock journalism as we know it. Anyway, should be a fun night. Doors are at 8PM, show at 8:45PM. I’m off work on little ol’ Staten Island at 4, giving me plenty of time to pick up some last minute holiday gifts in Times Square.

Walking downstairs into the Bowery Electric, I enter a room about the size of the one I sleep every night-equipped with a stage. There’s a floor that’s gonna hold maybe 20 of us, with steps leading up to a bar in the back-theres a railing when you get up there-considering changing my spot when the music comes on. There’s a sign that says “Occupancy by more than 108 persons is dangerous and unlawful”. Obviously the fire Marshall hasn’t been here in a while-hope they’re counting heads at the door we’re about to eclipse that occupancy.

Everyone I spoke to at the bar and in the room were all here for James Maddock, so when he fronted the 3 piece that took the stage at 8:50, it was to a gracious applause. I taped the first song-Maddock is strumming an acoustic guitar, with a bass player and drummer keeping pace, almost quietly. I’ve given up my seat and headed to the front of the room to the far left of the stage-now I’m too close. But this bluesy bastard has got me into it! Harmonica hanging from his neck, singing folky tunes sounding so much like Bon Dylan- if Bob Dylan’s song were recognizable live. Heads are nodding to a song I’m gonna take a guess is called “When the Stars Align”.. They turned me into a fan, and went off around 9:40..

All cards on the table, I didn’t know anything about Joseph Arthur until I started contributing to Concert Confessions. Only through the ceaseless praise from Reverend Justito was this show even on my radar. After finding out I was attending a few weeks ago I started listening to all the available stuff on YouTube. Trying to familiarize myself with some of the work, listening to the songs didn’t give me any indication that I made the wrong decision here; if anything got me more excited.

At 10:17, Joseph Arthur took the stage with band. And here I thought we were in for a night of slow jams-don’t let the wine goblets fool you-roof is about to come off. The girl next to me(who took a bus down from Toronto specifically for this show) says she’s never seen him with a band and that it’s usually him alone with like a million pedals. He’s a got a drummer channeling his inner Keith Moon, and a guy playing an acoustic guitar as he plays a very weathered electric guitar.

Every song, even the softer slower building tunes- had a crazy little effects box jam out portion of it. I taped a few songs, and I noticed them all going over six minutes. Hopefully the girls chatting it up to the right of me don’t show up on video. Bout 3 songs in, Arthur addresses the crowd and says “happy toys for tots day”. Then he’s like “this one is inspired spefically by Toys for Tots.. song’s called ‘Even Though'”-And before even strumming a chord he smirks and says “yea this has nothing to do with that at all..you totally caught me”.

Parts jammy and bluesy-parts distorted pedal busting madness; this night was nothing short of a win. Then, just when I start to really relax and enjoy myself he asks for the time. It was 10:57. He’s like “we only have 15 more minutes”. Due to venue restrictions, show has to end by 11:15… People in the crowd screamed “Occupy Bowery Electric!”-which was awesome. He played a few more. One being “Fistful of Mercy”, and the other being a song about the Occupy movements called “We Stand As One” -which he needed to reach to his iPad for assistance with the lyrics (awesome). After the song, it was like 11:20 and they said goodnight. Couldn’t have been more than 12, maybe14 songs at the length they were going. Yet with the sheer epicness in which they were delivered, I felt so fulfilled.

Here’s something you don’t see everyday: once the guitars were unplugged some guy was screaming stuff toward Joseph Arthur-all I heard was “mother fucker” and the phrase “Toby Keith” repeated as he stormed out the venue doors. Joseph, who is walking right by me as he’s exiting stage, looks at me and my Toronto friend and is like “what was he saying?” and I was like “he was screaming something about Toby Keith”. He headed off stage. Toby Keith? What the hell was that?? We just had ourselves an awesome night here, and some idiot gets drunk and starts shouting names of terrible artists. I’m so bewildered, I just can’t put it together. Hope Joseph Arthur and his band know that there was only one moron in the crowd, the rest of us were extremely satisfied with an evening of good tunes.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nY7XP8_-xs&w=480&h=360]

NOTES:
-Joseph Arthur plays City Winery on January 1st. The trooper from Toronto-who I hopefully learn her name by then-says she’ll be at that show too.

-I like how they named the street Joey Ramone Place. And by like I mean I think it’s stupid. This whole “The Ramones created punk” mystic is idiotoc-bands like the Stoogies and MC5 were playing that kinda music in Detroit 5 years before The Ramones ever took the stage.

-What’s up with all these “Rock” venues having performers needing to get off at 11 o clock or even 10 o clock sometimes for “Dance Parties”? There’s tons of places in NYC to find a nice dance floor where all the 19 year old girls can go, sniff Percocet and get slutty. Stop taking over the little cool dingy places I’m trying to attend shows-you are f#%king with my sh!t.

One of our favorite albums in 2011 was American GoldwingBy Blitzen Trapper. Last night, band paid a visit to The Late Show with David Letterman where they performed the song “Might Find It Cheap.” You can watch the performance below. In the event you are in Hoboken, New Jersey tonight (12/09/11), make sure you check the band out at Maxwell’s.

While Blitzen Trapper currently have no tour dates planned for 2012 at this time, there is no doubt these hard working Oregon natives will be coming to a town near you before the Mayan Calendar expires. To hold you over till they make it your way, check out our review of their recent show in Hollywood, CA.